The News
French President Emmanuel Macron waved off calls to resign Thursday and vowed to appoint a new prime minister in the “coming days,” seeking to contain the country’s spiraling political crisis a day after the government collapsed.
The French leader accused his political opponents of fomenting chaos, saying “the extreme right and the extreme left have united in an anti-republican front.”
The government’s implosion comes at an inopportune moment for Europe: Its most powerful countries, France and Germany, which is holding snap elections in February, are mired in domestic political turmoil at a time of deep global instability and uncertainty over the war in Ukraine.
SIGNALS
Macron has few good options to quell domestic chaos
President Emmanuel Macron is in a hurry to appoint a new prime minister to help resolve the country’s political crisis, Reuters reported, but the French leader could struggle to find a premier who can govern effectively with a parliament split into three fiercely opposed blocs. French law means new parliamentary elections cannot be held until summer 2025, and Macron has previously considered the possibility of holding such a vote in the second half of next year, Le Figaro reported. “A growing number of people in the French political scene do not see how the government can carry on like this until the next presidential election in 2027,” a former French official argued, noting that Macron’s potential resignation and an early presidential election are considered increasingly likely.
Franco-German turmoil raises uncertainty over who will deal with Trump
The turmoil in France and Germany has sparked concern over a lack of European leadership at a moment when the continent is facing potential geopolitical headwinds following the US election. Some hope London could bridge the gap, returning the UK to a role it often played before exiting the EU: “Labour’s election results give it the freedom to be a stable leader in Europe over the next five years,” one former UK official told The i Paper. Others have suggested European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s powerful commission could take the lead in handling the Trump administration, although there are doubts over whether the EU’s 27 nations could agree to a common approach. “There is nothing but bad news for Europe in Donald Trump’s US election victory,” a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre wrote in The Guardian.
Wobbles in French energy sector would be felt across Europe
France is by far Europe’s biggest electricity exporter, and the collapse of its government could impact the bloc’s energy prices. Questions around the sector’s funding, taxation, and future development remain up in the air, with deadlines on key decisions falling in the next few weeks. “If France’s power system loses steam as a result of the impending political skirmish,” a Reuters columnist argued, it could cause a regional energy crisis across Europe. “The uncertainty is causing concern, particularly in a sector where decisions take time to bear fruit,” a renewables lobbyist told the energy outlet Montel News. Europe is highly reliant on energy imports, and could already face a challenging winter due to depleting gas reserves and likely supply shortfalls, Bloomberg reported.